The Farmington girls' swim & dive team copped third place at the Missota Conference Championships at Northfield on Saturday, Oct. 27. FHS totaled 330 points to finish behind champion Chanhassen (495) and host Northfield (476). Coach Jen Marshall's squad totaled 330 points to easily outdistance Chaska (227) behind the frontrunners. FHS junior Kaitlyn O'Reilly was stellar for the Tigers with a first-place and second-place in individual swims and two third-place efforts as part of two relay teams.
"We
finished in a solid third place which is what we expected heading into the meet,"
said Marshall. "There were some fabulous swims and leaves no doubt in my
mind that we will again have an unbelievable taper."
The Tigers
are tapering for the Section 1AA meet, which will take place on Thursday, Nov.
8 (preliminaries) and Saturday, Nov. 10 (finals), both at the Rochester
Recreation Center.
Chanhassen
finished first in seven of the 12 events while Northfield copped four others as
the two schools battled for the conference title. The top two teams were
dominant in the relays, finishing first and second in each of those events.
The only
race that wasn't won by the top two schools was won by O'Reilly, who won the
100-yard individual medley in 2:11.10 to beat Northfield sophomore Kylie
Dahlgren (2:11.82). Her splits were 28.84, 33.07, 38.18, and 31.01. O'Reilly's runner-up finish came in the
500-yard freestyle (5:19.54) where Dahlgren finished three seconds ahead of her
in the arduous event.
FHS
sophomore Kirsten Kracke also had a sterling meet. She was third in the 50-yard
freestyle (25.48) and fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (56.37). She was also a member of two third-place
relay teams. Freshman Chelsea Gehrke had an impressive performance, as
evidenced by her fourth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (1:03.58) and
her seventh-place standing in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:15.05).
Cora
Ruzicka, a talented junior, was sixth in the 500-yard freestyle (5:38.09) and
seventh in the 200-yard freestyle (2:05.33).
Another Farmington junior, Chloe Holton, took sixth in the 200-yard
individual medley (2:28.63) and 11th in the 100-yard butterfly (1:08.59). Sophomore Ellie Sundet finished ninth in the
100-yard freestyle (58.23) and 12th in the 200-yard freestyle (2:08.55). Promising seventh-grader Catherine Gehrke was
10th in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:46.66 and 13th in the 200-yard freestyle
(2:09.55).
Senior Robin
Ellis (1:07.66) took eighth in the 100-yard backstroke and was 10th in the
50-yard freestyle (26.26). Sophomore
Kendall Novak (238.95) placed sixth in one-meter diving and junior teammate
Nikki Cayard (234.35) was seventh. Scoring points in the 100-yard breaststroke
were junior Sara Kintner (ninth in 1:16.29), and freshman Kaylee Dahlberg (11th
in 1:19.15). Kintner took 14th in the
500-yard freestyle (5:51.02), Others
scoring for Farmington included junior Hannah Seitzinger (13th in the 100-yard
freestyle in 1:00.99), freshman Emily Lee (14th in the 100-yard freestyle in
1:01.70), and seventh-grader Grace Roach, who was 13th in the 100-yard
butterfly in 1:09.13).
Farmington
was third in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:43.74, five seconds behind
Chanhassen, with Robin Ellis (26.63), Cora Ruzicka (26.17), Kirsten Kracke
(25.35), and Kaitlyn O'Reilly (25.59).
Another third-place finish was in the offing in the 400-yard freestyle relay
as FHS clocked a time of 3:50.68, 15 seconds behind first-place
Northfield. Kracke, Ruzicka, Chelsea
Gehrke, and O'Reilly swam in that quartet. In the other relay, the 200-yard
medley, the Tigers were sixth in 2:03.18, nearly 12 seconds slower than Chanhassen's
winning total. Robin Ellis, Chelsea
Gehrke, Chloe Holton, and Ellie Sundet competed in that event.
Chanhassen
sophomores Kaia Grobe and Zoe Avestruz were the individual standouts in the
Missota meet. Grobe claimed the 50-yard
freestyle (23.82) and the 100-yard butterfly (57.33) and swam the first leg of
her team's top time (1:38.37) in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which set both
pool and conference marks. Avestruz,
meanwhile, finished first in the 200-yard freestyle (1:54.67) and the 100-yard
backstroke (58.27); the latter swim established both pool and conference marks,
too. She was also on Chanhassen's
winning efforts in the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle races.
Missota Conference Championship Team
Results
1)
Chanhassen - 495
2) Northfield -
476
3)
Farmington - 330
4) Chaska -
227
5) Shakopee
- 197
6) Red Wing
- 194
7) New Prague
- 94
8) Holy Angels
- 68
